Mango-Pineapple-Orange Smoothie {a Crazy Cooking Challenge}

It's Crazy Cooking Challenge time again!



 I was so excited to hear that this month's challenge is fruit smoothies! Hubby and I LOVE smoothies. 5+ years ago, my brother went through a smoothie "kick" and he sold me on it. I even went so far as to spend a lot of my hard earned bucks on a new quality machine. I think the bucks paid off, because the blender still stands (although, thanks to another brother, the stopper on the lid has been broken for about 3 years...still holding on with some massive amounts of masking tape)! And more importantly, it still blends. Delicious concoctions- with smoothies, the sky is the limit!

Strawberry banana is a reigning favorite, as well as mixed berry (usually strawberries, raspberries and blueberries) and peach-strawberry. I have also sampled the green variety, throwing handfuls of fresh spinach into the mix (which, amazingly, you can't even taste!). Also on the sampled list are oatmeal smoothies and ones with flax seed included (didn't really care for the flavor or texture on that one). We generally like our smoothies creamy, so in addition to the fruit (always frozen so we don't have to water it down with ice!), and fruit juice we usually toss in some milk and/or yogurt.

This particular smoothie was chosen as a candidate because of it's use of mango. I love mango, and as Providence would decree, Travis brought me home a whole box of mangos from our Food Bank's surplus yesterday! I knew then and there it would be mango. So chopped and froze some that were ripening fast and today I tried this promising recipe from The Fusion Chronicles. Her recipe is a sort of copycat for the McDonald's mango pineapple smoothie and it is spot on! If you've ever had one from McDonald's, I can promise you, this is better! It is creamy, sweet and tangy and the consistency is perfect. The flavor of a mango is hard to describe, but I always come up with "bright" (if bright is a flavor!).

Mango-Pineapple-Orange Smoothie
(printable version)

makes one (about 12 oz?)

adapted from The Fusion Chronicles

1 cup chopped frozen mango (if using fresh mango, add a few ice cubes)

1/4 cup pineapple juice

1/4 cup orange juice

1 container (6 oz) fruit flavored yogurt (pina colada recommended- I used vanilla)

2 TB sweetened condensed milk

Put all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Blueberry-Honey Crumb Muffins {a Crazy Cooking Challenge}

When the Crazy Cooking Challenge for April was announced, I knew I didn't want to miss out!


Who wants to miss out on an excuse to make some delicious blueberry muffins??!

I found these delicious-looking muffins on a blog called "If You Give a Girl a Cookie"- I love that she uses alternatives to plain white sugar. The original recipe uses honey and brown rice syrup. When I scoured the grocery store shelves, however, I couldn't locate the brown rice syrup, so I searched substitutes and decided to use maple syrup- it was delicious!

These beautiful muffins are moist and filled with plump, juicy berries and the not-too-sweet flavor of the muffin is perfectly complimented by the sweet crunchy topping. 

Along with a smear of sweet butter, they are the perfect compliment to a cup of coffee in the morning, a welcome addition to a weekend breakfast, or a great on-the-go snack!

Blueberry-Honey Crumb Muffins

(printable version)

adapted from If You Give a Girl a Cookie

makes about 18 muffins

7 TB butter, softened

1/4 cup maple syrup, plus 1 TB water

1/3 cup plus 2 TB honey

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

scant 1 cup whole milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Crumbly Topping

4 TB flour

1 TB brown sugar

1 TB white sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 TB cold butter

Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin tin or line with paper baking cups.

Beat butter, syrup, honey and eggs in mixing bowl until smooth. In two separate bowls, mix the dry ingredients in one and the milk and vanilla in the other. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add dry ingredients and milk to butter mixture until just combined.

With a rubber spatula, fold in blueberries. Scoop mixture into prepared muffins cups (an ice cream scoop works well), taking care not to fill beyond the rim, as they will rise considerably.

To make crumbly topping, stir together flour, sugars and cinnamon. Add butter and mix with your fingers or a pastry blender until mixture resembles small pebbles. Sprinkle each muffin top with about a tablespoon of crumbly topping.

Bake 20-25 min. or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs stuck to it. Allow to cool 5 min. in pans before removing to a wire rack.

Serve with butter.

Spaghetti with Mozzarella-Stuffed Turkey Meatballs and Chunky Marinara {a Crazy Cooking Challenge}

Wow. I think I set a personal record for the longest title yet! And rightly so. If any, flavor-packed dish is deserving of a long, drawn out title, this delicious spaghetti is.

When I heard that the March cooking challenge would be spaghetti, I was delighted. Spaghetti, how I love thee...let me count the ways:
1) Plain and simple: easy, ground beef simmered in sauce out of a jar, over plain noodles.
2) Quick homemade sauce with Italian sausage, over whole wheat thin spaghetti or angel hair
3) Mom's recipe, chicken simmered in red sauce all day in the crock-pot, served over rotini.
4) Always, always!! With sour cream and shredded cheese. Yes. Ah, comfort food.
5) WITH THESE MEATBALLS- I mean, hey! They are stuffed with cheese for goodness' sake!! What more can you ask?? Bacon, you say? Bacon and cheese stuffed meatballs?? Hmm, that is an idea worth considering. Moving right along...



 I can't even begin to tell you how much flavor is packed into these little round balls of meat. Also known as meatballs. When I stumbled upon this recipe on Lauren's Latest, I knew I had found my ultimate spaghetti. But, alas! There was no sauce recipe, so I searched the web for the perfect sauce to compliment such a magnificent concoction as cheese stuffed meatballs. Moist, flavorful, cheese stuffed meatballs. Chunky Marinara from For the Love of Food caught my attention. It is chock full of tomatoes and onions and is just perfect for a gal like me who doesn't like to drown her pasta in red sauce.

Now, normally incredible yummyness is accompanied by a heaping serving of guilt. HOWEVER...take a moment to calculate with me... Turkey meatballs + Vegetable-laden-sauce + Whole wheat spaghetti = Healthy! Yay! Devour the incredible yummyness and throw the guilt out the window!

Anyhow, long story short, I combined recipes from these two fantastic bloggers, and it magically transformed into one delicious meal.

Spaghetti with Mozzarella-Stuffed Turkey Meatballs and Chunky Marinara

(printable version)

combined and tweaked by Jenn

Original recipes by Lauren's Latest and For the Love of Food

serves 4-6

whole wheat spaghetti noodles, or noodles of your choice

For meatballs:

1 slice white bread

1/4 cup milk

1 1/4 lb. ground turkey

1/2 cup finely diced onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 TB ketchup

1 egg

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried parsley

24 1/2 in. cubes mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Grease or line baking sheet with parchment paper. Tear bread into chunks and place in large bowl. Pour milk over bread and let it soak while you chop onions and garlic. Add the remaining ingredients (except cheese) to the bread/milk mixture and mix thoroughly. Scoop mixture by the tablespoon into your hand and push one cube of cheese into the center. Press meat mixture around cheese to completely cover and place on baking sheet. Repeat until all meat mixture is used. You should have 24. Bake 20-23 min. or until meat is thoroughly cooked. Serve with marinara atop spaghetti.

For marinara:

1 med. yellow onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 can diced tomatoes

1 tsp dried Italian herbs

1 tsp dried basil

2 TB red wine vinegar

1 TB olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions in olive oil about 5 min or until translucent. Add garlic and saute several minutes, until fragrant. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer at least 5 min. Serve with spaghetti and meatballs.

Sources: Lauren's Latest and For the Love of Food

Texas Sheet Cake {Crazy Cooking Challenge}

It's Crazy Cooking Challenge time again! When I saw that this months challenge was the ultimate chocolate cake, my heart sunk. I LOVE chocolate cake, don't get me wrong. But I've been on sort of a diet, so I knew making chocolate cake for just the two of us to eat was not going to happen. But thankfully, I found a way I could participate and make a delicious cake...and not eat the whole thing myself. Keep reading... :)



I come from a large family. Thus, we eat food in large quantities. Thus, my mom had some pretty good "feed a crowd" recipes...especially for company. This cake definitely feeds a crowd, and is a perfect pleaser whether being served at a birthday party, a company dinner, or a church potluck. This particular recipe comes courtesy of a blog called "A Southern Fairytale", but it is very similar to the one my mom and I often made together. It has a cake brownie-like consistency and is moist and fudgy on top, not overly rich, with just a hint of cinnamon. It's also easy to whip up- which makes it the perfect last minute dessert for unexpected visitors. I slightly altered Southern Fairytale's recipe, leaving out the nuts in the frosting (I don't remember ever eating it with nuts) and upping the chocolate by a tablespoon. It turned out absolutely delicious!
I made this special cake for a bittersweet occasion. A wonderful family in our church is moving away, and as a farewell treat, I served up Texas Sheet Cake after church on their last Sunday with us. We have a small congregation, so this large, thin cake was the perfect size to feed everyone. When I had served the last person, only one piece remained. I turned to see several teenage boys eyeing it hungrily. I stepped out of the way and said, "Have at it!" and they did...I looked back to see them even scraping the pan to lick up the last of the frosting clinging to the sides!

Start by mixing the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt) together.

Meanwhile, heat margarine, cocoa powder and water until the margarine melts and the mixture is boiling.

Pour it over the flour mixture; add eggs, soda, buttermilk, cinnamon and vanilla and stir till well blended.

Pour into a greased high-sided baking sheet or jelly roll pan and bake!

When the cake is near to being done, get to work on the frosting! The most important thing about making this cake is to pour the frosting over the cake while it is still hot, just out of the oven. I know that is usually verboten in cake-making and frosting, but this is a must! It causes the frosting to seep into the cake, creating a fudgy layer on top that is essential. And delicious. So, heat more margarine, cocoa and milk. Add powdered sugar, cinnamon and vanilla and stir till smooth. The only way I have found to minimize lumps in this frosting is to mix rapidly with an electric mixture. It doesn't get all the lumps, but it helps. Pour the frosting directly over the warm cake and smooth it out.
When the cake is cool, slice and serve. You can cut it into as few as 16 or as many as 24 pieces, depending on the size of your crowd and the size of their appetites! My mom's original recipe states that the cake will stay moist up to a week...if it lasts that long! It usually doesn't.
I don't usually decorate this cake, but for this special occasion, I did.

I apologize, I wasn't able to get a good photo of a slice of the cake so you can see that delicious fudgy layer, but trust me, it's there!
Whip this up for your next gathering of at least 16 people (unless you want to be eating cake for the next week!) and I guarantee they will love you. And then you won't be able to get rid of them. But...that's your problem. :)

Texas Sheet Cake
(printable version)

adapted from A Southern Fairytale

serves 16-24, depending on size of slices

2 scant cups of flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks (1 cup) margarine

1 cup water

4 TB cocoa powder

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

Frosting:

1 stick margarine

3 TB cocoa powder

6 TB milk

1 box powdered sugar (hard to find boxes anymore...it's about 4 cups)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.

Stir together flour, sugar and salt.

Heat margarine, cocoa and water over medium until boiling. Pour over flour mixture.

Stir in eggs, baking soda, buttermilk, vanilla and cinnamon until well blended.

Pour into greased high-sided cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. 

Bake 18 min.

Meanwhile, prepare frosting. Heat margarine, cocoa and milk. Stir in powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth. Pour over cake while still warm.

Cool, slice, serve, and be adored!

Source: A Southern Fairytale

Crazy Cooking Challenge: Cappuccino Fudge

Here we are, Crazy Cooking Challenge #2 already!! This month's challenge was to find the ultimate fudge recipe. What a delightful hunt! I have never made fudge before, so it was a bit of an experiment for me as well. Because this was my first time, after drooling over many decadent looking squares, I decided on a rather simple fudge, but as I am sure you will agree, it suits ME to a tee.

If you do not know by now, I am a bit of a coffee nut. Coffee snob. Connoisseur. Whatever. You get the idea. I like coffee. My kitchen fairly swims in it. Take a look at the previous post about Coffee and Cream Drops. See any clues?
Now that we've established (again) my infatuation with glossy brown beans (that includes cocoa beans!), we can move on to the delicious creation I concocted in my kitchen which included both. Cappuccino Fudge. It really was a snap to make- Annie wasn't kidding when she said it was simple. I really thought fudge would be more complicated than this (and maybe some are), but it was easy and turned out fantastic, so my confidence in fudge making is definitely bolstered to try something harder next time!

The first step is to line a pan with foil (hint: this makes for very easy removal later!).

Good old trusty foil.

Next, move over to your stove top! Another thing I like about this is it really only dirties one pot. Start with some marshmallow cream...this stuff is harder to get into the pan then you might think! It is SO sticky! Add instant coffee powder, sugar, butter, cinnamon, salt and heavy whipping cream. Annie's recipe only called for 1 tsp of instant coffee, but after reading some of the comments on her blog I decided I wanted to make sure it had a real distinct coffee flavor. So I put in a whole tablespoon.

Mix it all together until it's nice and smooth (I used a whisk for this part), while heating it over medium heat.

Once it really begins to boil, keep it there and turn on the timer! Here comes the tedious part: keep stirring while it boils for 5 whole minutes.

Then take it off the heat and stir in a bag of chocolate chips till they are melted and the mixture is creamy and smooth again. Pour the whole thing into your nice foil-lined pan and smooth it out.

Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours before you cut and devour!! Or. Share with your friends. Your favorite friends. Special treats are only for special friends, right?

This fudge tasted exactly as I hoped against hope that it would. A perfect marriage of coffee and rich chocolate. It was firm and the texture was smooth and it sliced beautiful into darling little squares.

If you want to get fancy, you could do like I did and serve each topped with a fine dusting of coffee powder (or cinnamon) and a whole coffee bean. Any way you slice it, this fudge is a perfect holiday indulgence your friends will love you for.

Cappuccino Fudge
(printable version)

by Annie's Eats (with tweaks)

makes about 36 squares

1 jar marshmallow cream (7 oz)

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup butter

1 TB instant coffee powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 (12 oz) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Line an 8” square baking pan with aluminum foil; set aside.

 In a 2 qt. saucepan, combine marshmallow cream, sugar, cream, butter, coffee powder, cinnamon and salt.

 Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Continue to boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. 

Stir in chocolate chips until smooth. 

Pour into prepared pan. 

Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours. 

Place on cutting board and cut into 36 squares.

Source: Annie's Eats

Crazy Cooking Challenge: Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes

I'm so excited! This is my first post with the Crazy Cooking Challenge! November's theme is mashed potatoes, so I scoured the blogosphere for a new and tasty recipe. I adore mashed potatoes. I have recently discovered that I love mashed red potatoes. With the skins on?

And lots of yummy stuff added?

Mmm. I thought it sounded delicious to add cream cheese to the already delightful potatoes, so I searched for a recipe containing that, as well as one limited to the ingredients I possessed (we aren't close to a grocery store and I didn't find my recipe before our shopping trip...). Finally I found a yummy looking recipe on a blog called La Phemme Phoodie. Unfortunately, the recipe called for chive and onion cream cheese (which I'm sure is delicious, but which I did not have!), so I tweaked it just a bit. Since the chive and onion flavor would be missing, I added a couple of cloves of garlic to the boiling potatoes to compensate.

These potatoes are delicious and rich, including milk, butter, sour cream and cream cheese! They are smooth and creamy, and the addition of the cream cheese adds a delightful tang. I cannot accurately call them "Chive & Onion Mashed Potatoes" as she does, but they were delicious nonetheless!! They were a perfect compliment to our cider pork roast and green beans, and they would be more than welcome at our Thanksgiving table in just a few weeks!

Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes
(printable version)

adapted from "Chive & Onion Mashed Potatoes" by La Phemme Phoodie

2 lb. small red potatoes, quartered

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. milk

1/4 c. sour cream

1 tub (8 oz.) cream cheese

2-3 garlic cloves, halved

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add potatoes, garlic and bay leaf. Cook until potatoes are tender, but still firm, about 10 min. Drain and place in a large bowl (or simply return to pan- not over heat)- remove bay leaf.

Combine potatoes with butter, milk, sour cream, cream cheese, salt and pepper. Mash together until smooth and creamy (or desired consistency).

Serves 8 (I halved it for the two of us and we had about a cup leftover)